Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

We need to reduce recidivism in Colorado, everyone should know that by now. One of the best ways to reduce the prison population is by making sure people don't end up there in the first place.

The failure rates on probation are just as bad as the failure rates on parole. Part of that problem is exacerbated by the huge numbers of people that probation officers have on their case load. We've already added new parole officers, now if we can just take some of the load off of the public defenders we might be getting somewhere.

The Colorado Judicial Branch says it is expanding its probation-services department by about 13 percent with the addition of probation supervisors, officers and administrative staff.

The department expects to add 81 probation officers, 12 probation supervisors and 18 support positions by the end of the summer.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The reason parole does not work is becuase the inmates are abused and tortured and made to feel like noting then let out with now where to go, no skills and most times no one left on their side. Why not try doing positive things while they are in prison. Yes, these people committed crimes but many of them CAN be rehbilitated. If only there was more while they are in prison to learn a trade or have a way of making money other than the small .60 a day or whatever it is. There are so many jobs they could do for minimum wage or more and then they could also be paying their child support and other obligations so then there is not such a strain on welfare and other organizations. Many of these people could if given a chance blend back into society and do well and not end up back in prison. The prison system needs to help in this process as well. Stop the abuse.

Adding more state employees is not the answer. The daily prison rate is still 60 cents a day, unless you snap a towel, playing with another inmate, then you get more time for the state to keep you in, you are fired from your 60 cent a day job, and we pay more state employees to keep society "safe". DOC does not correct, it just imprisons. 1/3 of all those in are drug addicts. Part of the problem is with society and their attitude against parolees, part of the problem is just thow them in jail and throw away the key attitude of Colorado. Part of the problem is with the inmates really wanting to change. They are offered college credit courses and interest classes, if they are on the proper level of conduct. Part of the problem are the laws that force them back to the same county in which they did the crime, which puts them back into the same temptations. Part of the problem is with the parolees not finding jobs and reverting back to what they think they can get away with. There is no easy solution, but piece by piece, we have to find better solutions.